head to head · open source
xxl-job vs dolphinscheduler
xxl-job has 30,562 GitHub stars, 11,486 forks, 79 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. dolphinscheduler has 14,482 stars, 5,092 forks, 128 open issues and last shipped yesterday. xxl-job leads on adoption by 111% (30,562 vs 14,482 stars). xxl-job is written in Java under GPL-3.0; dolphinscheduler is written in Java under Apache-2.0. xxl-job has attracted 38% as many forks as stars, dolphinscheduler 35%. dolphinscheduler was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| xxl-job | dolphinscheduler | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 14K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Java |
| Last push | 2026-07-21 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 5.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick xxl-job if
- You weight community size — 31K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick dolphinscheduler if
- You want the dolphinscheduler feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and dolphinscheduler fits your workflow better
About xxl-job
XXL JOB is a distributed task scheduling framework written in Java and released under the GPL 3.0 licence, built for teams that need scheduled jobs to run reliably across a cluster of machines rather than inside a single application process.
read the full xxl-job overview →
About dolphinscheduler
Apache DolphinScheduler is an Apache 2.0 licensed, Java based data orchestration platform for data engineers, analytics teams and platform operators who need to schedule complex task dependencies across data pipelines without building the control plane themselves.
read the full dolphinscheduler overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is xxl-job or dolphinscheduler more popular?
xxl-job has 30,562 GitHub stars and dolphinscheduler has 14,482. xxl-job has the larger community by that measure.
Are xxl-job and dolphinscheduler free?
Both are open source. xxl-job is licensed under GPL-3.0 and dolphinscheduler under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between xxl-job and dolphinscheduler?
xxl-job is written in Java and dolphinscheduler in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, xxl-job or dolphinscheduler?
Choose xxl-job if you want the larger community (30,562 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose dolphinscheduler if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.